


Beasts and Men

by singleorganicmachine



Category: Thor (Comics), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mythology, Centaur!Thor, Human!Loki, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, M/M, Rough Sex, Threats of Violence, mention of rape
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:02:41
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22307632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/singleorganicmachine/pseuds/singleorganicmachine
Summary: In this AU, Loki is the eldest son of Odin, mortal King of Asgard, yet his younger brother Balder receives all the praise. Shunned for his "womanly arts," Loki sets out to prove himself by hunting down a prized hind with golden antlers, but the chase takes him deeper into the Iron Wood than he's ever gone before, at the base of an unexplored mountain, he comes across a beast of myth--half horse, half man, and due to an unfortunate set of mishaps, end up kidnapped by this beast.Taken to the beast's home high on the mountain, Loki confronts both this creature, the centaur Thor, and what it truly means to be a man of worth.
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 24
Kudos: 88





	1. 1

“Stupid Balder,” I grumbled as I trekked on alone through the underbrush of the dim forest. The light was dappled and shrinking the longer I walked, until it all but vanished, leaving me in darkness not unlike dusk even though it was nearly midday.

My younger brother and I were supposed to hunt together, to be home for the celebratory feast of our father’s return from battle with equal glory, but I was tired of sharing every measure of esteem with my milksop of a sibling. I was the elder—wiser, more gifted, first in line for the throne—but still it was always Balder who was praised for his humility, his valor, his comely face. My penchant for studying alchemy and potion-making over swordplay earned me distaste instead of respect from the court. 

“Tricky arts,” they called them. “More fit for a woman.”

“No son of mine should study the womanly arts.”

“Why can’t you just commit to your training?”

“Why can’t you be more like Balder?”

Well, we would see who earned the songs tonight, when I returned not with a boring old boar, as Balder no doubt would, but a magnificent white hind—elusive and coveted for their golden antlers. What a prize that would be for Father. No hunter had managed to kill one in two hundred years, but they did not have the skills I possessed.

Subtlety was not a strong suit here in the kingdom of Asgard, but I had it in spades. I had been trying in vain to teach Balder how to track silently, how to wait and listen, how to truly hunt instead of charge and slaughter, but he grew bored and irritable and insisted we move on, so I let him go his own way while I pursued my own ends.

“Stupid Balder,” I said again, this time smiling. Let him go off on his own and get lost in the mud like some novice pup. I had better things to do.

I had been on the trail of a hind for nearly two hours now, and he appeared to be leading me deeper and deeper into the densest areas of the Iron Wood here in the outskirts of the Asgardian countryside. No doubt he was attempting to shake me so he could vanish into the thicker trees of the mountains, but I had followed him as close as I dared and was carefully making my way in a large arc so that I would inevitably head him off just before he got there. I licked my lips at the thought of returning home, alone and triumphant, with a golden-crowned hind over my shoulder, my shot so precise that even his snowy fur would not be marred. For though I forsook the melee violence of close combat, there was none in the Realm more skilled with a bow than I.

I was nearing the base of the mountain now when I noticed that the dimness of the dense wood was inexplicably being lifted. The further I walked, the lighter it became, and I slowed when I realized I had stumbled upon a glorious meadow. A crystal stream ran through it, sprouting from a small fissure at the base of the mountain. It was just at the crest of what I saw was a pass, the only conceivable place for the hind to cross into the trees beyond, as the crags and rocks were too steep on either side for him to traverse. He had come this way knowing it was his best chance for escape… Clever, but not clever enough. From my vantage point I could see the whole clearing, and he would be nothing but a walking target the moment he stepped out of the trees. 

I hunkered down and approached silently, keeping hidden behind a fallen log in a thick grove of trees just above the meadow. He should be along any time now, but I could not help but peer out to inspect the meadow. It was lush with greenery and wildflowers, and I could identify by sight several rare and very valuable plants I could use in my potions. Already I could see enough yarrow flowers to make many vials of the healing balm that clotted severe bleeding better than any bandage. Even the healers asked me for the recipe, but I would not give it. I saw lavender and lemon balm as well. 

Excellent; after I brought down the hind I could collect the precious ingredients and return home with even more prizes to my name.

I sat down against the fallen log, out of sight, and waited, keeping my ears burning for the sound of hooves against brush. The gait and pace of a hind was radically different than a boar, due to its much lighter weight and its grace, and all one needed to do was listen to discern the difference. My people were such idiots that sometimes I swore I was not one of them at all.

I waited several moments, hearing birds and various small creatures shifting about, until the sound of light, elegant hooves caught my attention. I smiled to myself as the hooves moved through fallen leaves and branches, crackling only just slightly, until the sound eased into the barest of rustling. 

The hind had ventured into the meadow.

My blood pounded in my temples in my rising excitement, and I carefully reached back to my quiver, drawing and nocking one of my arrows. The heads were thinner and less jagged than the standard arrows of Asgard, designed to kill cleanly without damaging fur or meat. My design, of course. There would be no doubt of my victory today, oh no. Every facet of my success was mine alone to claim, just as planned. I waited until the hooves sank into the softer, wet earth near the stream, putting the beast directly behind me, before I turned and lifted my bow, taking aim.

My arrow never flew.

It was not a hind that stopped beside the stream, but what it was I could not rightly conceive. It was a horse—a great, muscled stallion with a tawny coat, thick golden tail, and the same golden sweep of fur on each fetlock. It was so sleek it shone in the uninterrupted afternoon sunlight that blanketed the meadow. But what was more incredible than finding such a beast wandering alone in the thick forests of Asgard, was the fact that where the creature’s neck should have been, there sprouted the entire torso of a man.

My bow drooped as I openly gawked, everything else forgotten as I watched the odd creature. The equine parts of him behaved exactly as any horse, his tail swishing restlessly at insects as each of his four long legs folded underneath him and laid down in the grass. The part of him that was a man reached down to cup his hands in the water and take a drink, then another, and then splash his face and neck. The man part of him was built solidly with well-trained muscle, his skin sun-kissed but not dark, with a broad chest dappled in fine hair. Around each wrist, he wore a bracer of leather, and around his man’s waist he had a belt upon which dangled a wineskin, a dagger, a pouch, and—of all things—a magnificently crafted war hammer. 

When he finally lifted his head and turned to look at something, I could see his face was stunningly handsome, and bearded. The hair on his head was long and flowing in waves, plaited here and there with cords of leather. He wore another band of leather as a circlet. His hair and beard were as golden as his horsetail. 

Still stunned, I had not noticed that the hind had ventured out from the trees, and that was what the strange horse-man was glancing at. My mind ran wild, unsure of what to do, and I realized the strange man-creature was taking his hammer in hand and rearing back his arm, aiming for MY prize.

I panicked, letting loose my arrow, which caused his hammer to fall, and the commotion startled the hind. It bounded off towards the mountain pass and I screamed, “No!” and drew and let fly another arrow that narrowly missed. The hind vanished into the mountain pass and was lost to me forever. “No!” I screamed again, growling in frustration, and whirled furiously on the horse-man only to find that my aim had been too true, even in my panic. It was embedded in his upper chest, near to the shoulder, and he was slumped on the bank of the stream with his wound gushing blood.

“Mimir’s head!” I cursed, and turned on my heel, intending to flee, but something halted me only a few steps away. Could I just leave him to die, my victim? He was not entirely a man, but he obviously had the mind of a man, if he could hunt and adorn himself so. Could I let a man die at my hand over lost game?

I cursed again and turned, leaping over the log and climbing down into the clearing. I dropped my bow and discarded my quiver, rushing to seek out the plants I had before identified. I gathered them quickly and then removed my mortar and pestle from my satchel, combining them quickly into a fine paste. After that I went over to the stream, adding a bit of water to complete the recipe, and then I hesitated.

His large body was prone in the grass, unmoving, but I could see his chest still rising and falling. Blood covered his torso and continued to dribble into the grass beneath him. He would die in minutes. I went over, cautious, and knelt beside his shoulder. I had struck an artery, but thankfully with my arrows, the tip would slide out easily without further damage. 

I swallowed, nervous, before I set one hand on his chest. He stirred, letting out a groan of pain, but did not regain consciousness. I took the arrow shaft in my other hand and pulled, ripping it free, and this time his eyes snapped open and his face contorted in pain and rage. His eyes were blue like the sky, though now they roiled with the force of a storm.

“Who dares?” he bellowed, and I was shocked to hear him speak—and in my language, though his accent was strange. He began to struggle, his horse legs scraping about in the grass and his good arm pushing at the ground. 

“Stop!” I demanded as his blood gushed out all over my legs. “Stop struggling! Your wound—” He didn’t listen, as none ever listened to me, and I snapped. “Stop it, you great hulking idiot!” He paused, his eyes blinking and going wide, as if he could not believe I just insulted him. “Listen to me, you are going to bleed out if you don’t sit still and let me heal you, oaf!”

Still looking taken aback, he settled himself a bit, but remained half-upright on his elbow. “That is better,” I said, and coated two of my fingers in the balm. He looked dubious as I lowered it to his wound, and bared his teeth when I applied it. 

“This had better not be some human trick,” he snarled. “You are probably poisoning me.”

“Really?” I was fed up already with this strange beast. Even he spoke to me as if all my skills were trickery, and while they were saving his life! I growled and continued to apply the paste. “I have already shot you and told you that you would bleed to death, so why would I come all the way out here to concoct a poison, remove the arrow, and risk getting kicked just to kill you with it?”

He snorted but didn’t reply, watching me rub on the last of it, putting it on in thick portions that would clot the blood and close the wound. I then turned to the stream to rinse off my hands and tools. “Your bleeding will stop now, but don’t touch the wound or you will scrape off the plant matter before it congeals and you won’t heal.” 

“I would not be in such a state if you had not shot me in the first place,” he pointed out, grunting as he struggled to sit up, gathering all his legs under him. He began to rinse the blood off himself, and I tried to do the same. 

“Yes, well, that was a miscalculation on my part…but I would not have done it if you hadn’t been trying to kill my hind.”

“YOUR hind?” he demanded. “What made it yours, human?”

“I tracked it all day long, from the very edge of the forest! It was mine!”

He scoffed out a rude chuckle. “Well, it was in my domain, so that made it mine.”

I glared at him. “Your domain? All under the sky is the domain of Odin Allfather, King of Asgard.”

This time he threw back his head and laughed, though that caused him to cringe a bit and clench his fist. “You humans, always thinking you own everything just because you give it a pretty name.” He shook his head and then exhaled. “It seems we have both caused offense to one another, but—you did save my life, when you had no obligation to do so.” He turned to me. “I thank you, human.”

“Your gratitude will not bring back my hind.” I slumped on the shore of the stream, kicking off my boots and resting my tired, aching feet in the cool water. I might as well take a moment to rest, now that my clothing was soaked through “Now I will have to go home empty-handed while Balder returns in triumph once again.”

“Balder?”

I realized my loose tongue and shook my head, stopping it there. “It is no concern of yours…whoever you are.”

He chuckled. “Good on you for not saying WHATever you are. My name is Thor.”

“I am Loki.” I was about to spout my full title, but decided that my identity as a prince would be better kept secret. I had no idea what manner of beast or man he was, whether he was wicked or greedy as are most men, and I would fetch a high price in ransom if my true identity were to be revealed. 

“Loki,” he repeated. “I like that.” 

I hummed, digging my toes in the smooth pebbles that lined the bottom of the stream. “What manner of creature are you, then?”

“I am a centaur,” he said proudly, as if it was something to be impressed by. 

“Centaur…” It sounded vaguely familiar. “Wait, I know that… Are you not meant to reside in the Realm of Olympus with those boy-loving Greeks?”

He laughed again, slapping his…ONE of his many knees. “My ancestors were born in Olympus, yes, but my people were either slaughtered or driven out centuries ago. We went wherever we could manage, and have hidden ever since.”

“How can it be than no Asgardian has ever seen one of you before, in all this time?”

“Perhaps one of you has,” he mentioned, and then pushed with his legs, returning to his full, towering height. I had to lean back considerably to even begin to take him in. “But he probably did not live to tell of it.”

I bristled, my body going alert as he loomed above me. I got my legs under me and rolled away, standing and backing up, knowing he could trample me easily. He just smiled at me, and I darted my hand back, going for my bow, and cursed when I remembered that I had stupidly abandoned it and my arrows in the meadow.

“What will you do now, little hunter?”

“Do not mock me, beast! I brought you down easily enough, and it is only by my skill and mercy that you stand before me now!”

His blue eyes went narrow. “…True.” He seemed reluctant to admit it. 

Suddenly, I felt a pricking at the back of my neck and swiped my hand over the spot, coming away with a hideous winged insect. I scoffed and swatted it in my other hand before I flicked it away. Thor seemed to observe this, and then he smiled again. “The tides have turned in my favor, little hunter.”

“You think me so helpless?” I snapped, “You arrogant…” But my vision had suddenly begun to blur. I blinked, trying to focus, but then my ears began to throb with my heartbeat. “What is…” My tongue went swiftly numb, and my breathing caught in my throat, leaving me speechless. In another moment I was lulling, fighting to stand on my own two feet, and then a firm hand was on my arm.

“Have a care, Loki, for you are about to be the only living being to ever gain this privilege.” I tried to look at him, to question, but everything was just a blur of colors and my voice was useless. 

Suddenly, I was being lifted off my feet and onto his broad horse’s back, where a saddle would go, and my head spun with the movement. He pulled me, locking both my arms around his waist. 

“Hold on if you can,” he said. I felt falling-down drunk as the world began to move around us, but I could make sense of nothing as I slumped forward against the firm muscles of his man’s back, my face in his hair, and blindly held fast. I could feel his powerful equine body working beneath me, the thick legs lifting and falling, but it did not last long before everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loki awakens in the quiet mountain home of the Centaur, Thor, and learns discovers that through no fault of his own, he is now in a most unpleasant predicament...

I woke to the smell of grass and dampness, and after a moment, I discerned the aroma of roasting meat. I could hear the crackling of a fire, and the whistling of a gentle wind. I opened my eyes to be met with a ceiling of smooth stone. I groaned, blinking through the throbbing of my head. I felt as if I had come out of a drunken stupor and into a hangover. But no…I hadn’t been drinking the night before… I’d been preparing for the hunt with Balder…

The hunt.

It all came back to me then and I sat up, realizing that I was tucked into a pile of thick furs—a bedroll. Also, I was unclothed beneath them. I looked around, seeing that I was in a cave. To my right, the cave deepened beyond my line of sight, filled with what looked like supplies. To my left there was a crude work station—a stone table held up with sections of tree stumps, and shelves carved out of the rock wall containing leather bags and jars made from wood and stone. Several tools were hung up as well. The bed I was in was nestled as the very back of the cavern, aligned directly with the mouth so that I could see a grassy clearing outside.

The light of a fire glowed somewhere beyond the entrance. I gathered the top fur of what appeared to be a bear around me, and as I stood, shakily, I noticed my satchel, bow, boots, and arrows sitting next to me. I pondered a moment before I left them there and ventured out of the cave into the evening air.

He was there, the centaur, tending to a fire a few yards away from the mouth of the cavern. Ironically enough, he had a boar roasting on a spit above it that he now and then turned, prodding at the meat with a stick. He also tended to a large kettle nestled in the hot coals, stirring whatever was inside. I noticed that my clothing was hanging on wooden racks just near the fire.

“I hope you enjoyed the comfort of my bed, little human,” he said when he saw me. 

I huffed, gathering the fur more securely over me before I walked forward. “You are the one who put me in it; you can hardly complain over something I never asked for.”

“I suppose not.” He prodded at the meat one more time before he took a knife and carved out hunks, setting the portions on wooden platters. “You must be hungry. Come.” He set one platter on a stump in front of a fallen log, next scooping out a bowl full of some kind of stew and setting that beside it along with a goblet. All the dishes appeared to be hand carved from wood.

I hesitated a moment before I sat on the log and adjusted the fur so I could slip my hands free and begin to eat. “Where am I?”

“My home, on the mountain.” He served himself and ate heartily. “Count yourself lucky; no human has ever seen it before.”

“I shall count myself confused, for I am not certain why I needed to see it at all. You had no right to bring me here against my will.”

He smirked, shaking his head. “Humans are so ungrateful. I had to bring you here to save your life.”

I raised a dubious brow. “What do you speak of?”

“That wasp that stung you has a most deadly venom. Well, deadly to humans, that is. The cure must be administered as quickly as possible, and I had a dose already made up in my workshop. I was nearly too late, but you made it through.”

I remembered the sting on my neck now, the drowsiness, the way my vision failed. To think such a small creature could be so lethal. If he’d had left me there, I would have died alone and my body would likely never have been discovered. We saw no such wasps closer to Asgard; they must only live near these mountains.

“…Thank you,” I said, reluctantly.

“Now we are even, human.”

“I do have a name, if you recall, horse.”

He growled at me, his fingers punching into the gob of meat he was holding. “Do NOT call me a horse,” he snapped.

“Then do not call me HUMAN as if it is an insult. My name is Loki.”

“Very well then, Loki. The venom of that wasp saps the body of vitality and shrivels the lungs after it steals your sight and balance. You must eat and drink to regain your strength.”

I did so, for I was indeed starving. I devoured the meat and spiced stew, as if I had not eaten in weeks. The water in my cup was crisp and tasted clean. The centaur ate more than twice as much as any man would ever be able to eat—and between us the boar was soon gone. When it was, I sat in the soft grass and leaned against the log.

“…Thank you for your hospitality,” I said. “Especially after I shot you. I am sorry for that. I acted without thinking…which is not something I ever do.”

“That hind must have been very important to you then.”

I sighed. “It was. It was to be my prized catch, a gift for my father to prove my worth over my brother’s.”

“Balder?”

I eyed him a moment. “Yes. Everyone favors him even though I am the eldest.”  


“Why is that?”

I bundled myself deeper in the fur, scowling. “Because he is brave and brash and beautiful. He does as he’s told and swings his sword like a true warrior. He does all that father expects and never thinks for himself. He resembles father as I do not, with his honey hair and blue eyes. He is outgoing and friendly and simple…all the things I am not.”

I was unsure why I just confessed all that to a total stranger—an inhuman stranger at that—but the centaur simply listened. “Brothers can be…difficult,” he replied after a while. 

“You have a brother?”

He chuckled. “I had nineteen of them, in fact.”

I spit up my water a bit. “Nineteen?”

He nodded. “All of them younger than myself.”

“That must have been…a nightmare.”

“At times it was, yes. At times, I hated them. But now…” He looked at me. “I miss them.”

I frowned. “How long has it been since you saw them?”

“We were all separated when the Olympians ran us out of the Realm. I have not seen them since.”

“You mean…in hundreds of years?” He nodded. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “I am sure they are leading their lives just as I am; solitary but surviving. Hopefully any one of them found their way to a centauride and has raised a family, kept our people going. I was not so fortunate.”

“…You mean you haven’t seen a single other one of your own kind in all that time?”

He shook his head. “I am alone here, so you needn’t be concerned over your home, as the Olympians were. I could do little damage on my own.”

“…Did you do damage back then, in your home? Is that why they drove you out?” I didn’t want to ask, fearing his reaction, but I was curious now.

He didn’t answer right away. “Some of us did. Some of us…were wicked. These are likely the centaurs you’ve heard tell of in stories, the ones who ransack villages and kidnap young human females to violate.” 

I found I was blushing as I nodded. He was right; those were the centaurs I’d read about in any of the Olympian tomes I’d found in the library. 

He was nodding. “That would be a single tribe of us. A feral, disparate tribe that preferred violence to any sort of civility or art. They would tear their game apart bare-handed instead of hunt, pillage instead of trade, rape instead of court. A single tribe, but of course their tales were the ones that spread, that were remembered. And soon all of my people were condemned for the crimes of but a few, and we were all shunned as one menace and driven out of our home.”

I shook my head. “What idiocy. Why did you let them do that? Why did you and your people not oppose them? Rise against them?”

He smiled, but it was sad—and for the first time I could see his age in his eyes. His face was that of a young man still, in his prime, but his blue eyes were ancient. 

“We had not the heart for it. Their hunters…had trapped and slaughtered all of our foals that they could find. We had no fight in us then, only grief. Because of this, we were rather easily overwhelmed.”

I’d put my hand to my mouth without realizing, rubbing my upper lip. “Your children?”

“They lured them in with sweets, with music, and then they would cage them and parade them through their streets before impaling them with spears through the bars. It wasn’t even sport at that point. It was a massacre.”

I was shaking my head. “No wonder you hate humans.”

He nodded. “Yes, but I also know that one cannot judge an entire people for the actions of but a few, as the Olympians did with my kind. However, by that logic, I know there are still many humans I cannot trust, even if I can come to trust you. I hope you will understand that.”

“…It makes sense. It does. I could never expect you to openly trust anyone after what happened to your people.” I managed to smile. “Besides, I’m used to not being trusted. It doesn’t really hurt my feelings anymore.” 

He chuckled. “So even your own think you are tricky, eh?”

“Only because I am.”

He laughed.

I eyed my clothing on the rack. “Do you think my clothes are dry yet?”

“Ah, yes. They were still a bit covered in my blood. I hope you will forgive me for disrobing you.”

I managed a smirk, raking my eyes along his lower extremities. It was still uncanny, that he looked and sounded so like any normal man, but possessed the lower body of a horse. His tail flickered in the grass, keeping the mayflies at bay. 

“…I suppose it was quite a sight, given you aren’t accustomed to what I carry below the waist,” I remarked.

He laughed again and moved to stand, unfolding his long horse legs and taking my garments down. He tossed them over to me and I stood, suddenly hesitating. He cocked his head at me with a grin. “Shy? Not much point to that now. I’ve seen what you have to offer.”

“No, you haven’t, not remotely.” I smirked before I dropped the fur and started replacing my clothes. He sat back down, watching me. I watched him back until he finally looked away. When I was dressed again, I returned the fur to my shoulders, given that the mountain air was thinner and much cooler. The stars were out already, and the sky was so clear here. It seemed the constellations were suddenly more numerous than they’d always been.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked, noticing where I looked.

I looked over at him, at the way the fire made his hair ignite with gold and his eyes blaze. “Yes,” I replied. “How long have you lived here, on the mountain?”

“Five-hundred years.”

“Longer than Asgard has even existed,” I observed. “It really is your domain.”

“I told you that.”

“Yes, you did.”

After a while he began to clean up the site, gathering the dishes. I helped him, following him around the cavern to a stream that cut through the trees. He followed it up to where a slender waterfall tumbled down from the heart of the mountain into a crystalline pool. I peered but could not tell how deep it was. He knelt at the grassy shore and began to rinse out the dishes. I aided him, then set them all out on a linen he had with him to dry. I sat for a while afterward, just looking at the waterfall.

“Is this the same stream that cuts through the meadow?” I asked, dipping my hand in it.

“Yes.”

“It’s so clear. I’ve never seen or tasted water like this…”

“It’s the mountain. It has a unique makeup of minerals that purify it as it runs through the rock. By the time it emerges here, it is as clean as if it was boiled. It also very good for your skin and body when you drink it.”

“Remarkable… Water like this would be a crucial additive to my potions… I shall have to take some with me when I return.” He frowned before he stood from the shore and walked his way back towards the cavern. I followed, confused by his actions. “Thor?”

“So you remember my name,” he remarked, but his humor was forced.

“What is it?”

He stopped, turning about, and I had to stumble back from sheer intimidation. He was just so big, so broad. I had to tilt my head back to meet his face. “I want you to understand that I take no pleasure in this, Loki, but as I have explained, I must be cautious. Your people…cannot be trusted. I must protect myself.”

“Well yes, but what does that…” I stepped backward when it hit me. “Wait…” I glanced around. “No... No. Because I’ve seen where you live… You aren’t going to let me leave, are you?”

He was still frowning. “I cannot. If any of your kind found out about me… If any one of them wanted me dead just like the humans I once knew… I cannot let you go now that you know where I live.”

“I won’t tell anyone,” I began, holding out my hands, entreating him. “Not a soul. How could I, after what you’ve said, about your people? The children? I am not some heartless barbarian.”

He shook his head. “I want to believe you, Loki, but how can I? What reason do I have to blindly trust any human? And even if I could, you have said yourself that your people are simple and brutish. They could convince you to tell. You would not betray your family’s trust only to keep me safe. I am not so naïve as to believe that. Nor would I show you such disrespect as to assume you would value my life over the trust of your family.”

I bared my teeth. “You have no right to keep me here against my will.”

“I know, but I must.”

I balled my fists. “You can’t keep me here. I’ll run. I can follow the stream back easily.”

“Do you honestly think you can outrun me?” His hooves stamped a bit in the grass. 

He was right. “You have to sleep sometime.”

“I am a very light sleeper. You can try to escape but you will not make it. I will run you down in moments and drag you back.”

“You can try.”

“I will succeed. You could trek down the mountain for a full day’s time and I would still catch up to you. Do not make me prove it.”

I was fuming, so incensed I could barely articulate my thoughts. “You cannot do this to me!” 

“I can, and I have. I suggest you acquaint yourself with the idea of staying, as this will be your home now.” He walked off, disappearing into the cave. 

I was so angry I couldn’t see straight. He was just a beast after all! To think he could presume to keep the high prince of Asgard trapped here in the wilderness! I tore out grass and kicked over his kettle before I tossed half his dishes into the stream. 

“Damned horse! Stupid, drooling, smelly animal! Beast! MULE!” I threw stones at the side of his cave, acting this way for a full hour before I collapsed, disgusted with my childishness, and exhausted from the thought of how helpless I was. 

He was right, even if I ran, he knew this mountain inside and out, and he had the power and dexterity of a wild stallion. Even if I ran all night I could never outrun him, and I could never overpower him. If I took my bow and arrows with me maybe I could… But no matter how furious I was, I didn’t want to kill him. 

I was stranded here with him.

Reluctantly, shivering, I returned to the mouth of the cavern. I didn’t have to duck at all, as it was carved out taller with his height in mind. Thor was lying across his bed, reading a scroll of some sort. He honestly did look upset by this turn, but I couldn’t be persuaded to feel sympathy for him. 

“Calmed down?” he asked.

“For now,” I replied incredulously. I looked around. “If I’m to stay here, where is it I should sleep? In the corner, like a sack of old roots?”

“I have many furs here,” he replied. “You can make a bed wherever you like.”

I avoided grumbling as I gathered any loose furs in my arms and began to make a bed on the back wall, as far away from his as possible. It was warmer back here, away from the entrance. I piled them up and arranged them as I liked before I bundled down in the nest. The cave was lit with crude candles in stone recesses in the walls. Without asking, I gathered a great many to bring back to my little nook, hoping to warm the space.

“…What are you reading?” I asked after a long while of silence.

“One of the histories of my family line.”

“I suppose my family will have to settle for reading about me in the future as well.”

It was silent again for a long span of time, and this time it was pregnant with tension. He blew out the candles one by one and then I heard him lie down, nestling in the furs. 

“I know it does not mean much, but I am sorry, Loki.”

I didn’t respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you are still enjoying.... I am still working out what direction to go with this story, so please bear with me as updates will continue to be slow... I am also starting a new career in a week, so that will eat up much of my time and energy, but it's a good thing for me! Please continue to be patient with me, beautiful readers <3

**Author's Note:**

> Another AU with mythical creatures! I like what I like! And I hope you all like it too.
> 
> Honestly, the title might change in the future. I'm not crazy about it....


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